Eight of Swords — Spiritual Message of the Day

Truth only reveals itself when one gives up all preconceived ideas. — Shoseki

In his book, No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life, Thich Nhat Hanh makes the point that freedom is, above all else, freedom from our own beliefs. To illustrate this point, he relates a parable about a man who believes that a charred body is that of his dead son. He cremates the body and carries it in an urn everywhere, so deep is his grief. However, unbeknownst to this man, his son was not dead. He had been kidnapped, but one day he escapes, returns and knocks desperately on the man’s door, begging to be let in. The man cannot believe that the person banging at his door is his son. Has he not carried his son’s ashes around with him all this time? So the man refuses to open the door, and eventually his son leaves, now lost to him forever.

When we are wedded to our beliefs and concepts, we become blinded by them, trapped by them. And so we should always entertain the possibility that we are wrong about something. Our egos hate this, of course, but it is the only way to find truth. And even more than that, each time we consider such a possibility, we weaken our ego’s constraints on our ability to live an authentic life.